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Hi

Any one know what the pink is in sausage seasoning? mine turn out brown and would like to make them pink!! sad i know!!

Dougie

The pink color that sausages have to them is caused by a curing agent. Depending on the sausage you are making it can be sodium nitrite or sodium nitrate.

The cures also go under many different names: Instacure #1 or #2, Prague Powder and so on.

I hope that answers your question. There are many other people that can better describe the differences between the two and point you in the right direction for locating a supplier.

DarrinG

Thanks DarrinG

I think I will leave it then as its ok for killing Botulinum in tined meat but best to keep out of sausage if you are eating them fresh or freezing

Cheers

Doug

Hi
try adding some commercial Bacon, adds just enough nitrate/nitrite to go pink and you know its safe. Only problem is it leaves them a bit pink and SHMBO thinks they are raw so puts them back under the grill.
George

Talking about commercial bacon, had 2 slices of commercial streaky bacon just 2 days ago while on holiday. They are sooooooo baaaaaad! It's more of less tasteless and it's sooooo hard it feels like I was chewing on a slice of bacon flavoured rubber sandal!
I'll never ever order bacon again when I'm eating out. Nothing compares with homemade dry cured bacon! Wooohooooo

I saw in another thread relating to pork pies, that anchovy essence, or Worcester Sauce can be used to impart a pink colour. I recently experimented adding 1/4tsp of Lee & Perrins to 2lb of Pork & Beef (80% Pork/20%Beef) sausage and it did turn the sausage a pink colour, but only after a second day in the fridge. The first link fried after being left 24hrs to bloom, did not turn pink.

I've added bacon before, as a Cumberland recipe found previously on another site called for 1 rasher per lb.

Also in a different batch added a small amount of Mortons Tender Quick to the salt used to store the casings (about 1/4tsp to about 1/2lb of salt) .

Both worked, with the following reservations

1)Bacon (particularly smoked bacon) affects the flavour giving a bit of a BBQ taste. I think the intention for Cumberland was to use unsmoked bacon ("salt pork" here in USA)

2)Not sure if it was the TQ, but the respective batch of casings were a bit fragile.

In both above, it gave a somewhat "hammy" taste. Great in pork pies, creating characteristic darker flecks of meat, but not too desireable in fresh sausage recipes except where specified (bbq, linguica,longaniza etc).

I didnt find any negative impact from the LP though at the quantity used